The US jobs report today may not have any overbearing consequences but it should still reflect sentiment for the most part
You can't really blame anyone for forgetting or ignoring today's non-farm payrolls report. Amid Brexit headlines and US stimulus talk, as well as the ongoing battle between the virus situation and vaccine optimism, it is easy to see this getting lost in the shuffle.
The jobs data isn't what it used to be and this time around, it should not present much connotations to the market besides acting as a possible sentiment indicator.
Equities were more tepid earlier on but are keeping mild gains, though there is some question of frothiness as we approach the year-end and that could see some positioning flows and/or profit-taking take place after a stunning recovery since late March.
The expectation is for a +475K reading on the headline non-farm payrolls but at the end of the day, the figure - whatever it may be - should be relatively inconsequential.
It is still tough to really size up the report when the headline figure is still that big.
Although, the market could still use the details as some added support for a risk bias in trading ahead of the weekend. But that should be all there is to the release.
There's an off-chance that a major miss/beat could tie back to yields and what the Fed may do later this month but I see that as rather unlikely to happen.
The supportive data heading into the payrolls report have not been of much help lately but for those interested, you can check them out here:
